


Safe Havens

by placentalmammal



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Aftercare, Blindfolds, Choking, Dom/sub, F/F, Hair Braiding, Hand Jobs, Switching, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 09:44:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11803476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/placentalmammal/pseuds/placentalmammal
Summary: Despite everything, they find peace in one another's arms.





	Safe Havens

The floor is very cold beneath Hella's aching knees. Blindfolded and gentled as she is, her entire world has narrowed to the head of a pin. There is the floor beneath her, her hands on her thighs. The coarse burlap blindfold on her cheeks, Adelaide's hands in her hair. The queen -- _her _queen, Hella's queen -- is being uncharacteristically gentle tonight, brushing and braiding Hella's thick curls. She works silently, steadily, and Hella is hazy and half-dozing, her hands fisted on her thighs.__

__"You're very beautiful like this," Adelaide says, her voice low and rasping. "You could've been incredible."_ _

__Hella says nothing; Adelaide doesn't expect her to. That's not what this is._ _

__Adelaide sighs. "I've never known whether to thank you or curse you," she says. Her nails scrape across Hella's scalp and she shivers. It goes through her, her cunt aches and her nipples stiffen into peaks. She exhales, a shuddering little sigh that catches in her throat. She is alive with /want/, every nerve and fiber of her singing in perfect synchronicity._ _

__She's drawn Hella's hair into dozens of fat braids capped with pearls. It's how she wears--how she /wore/ her hair, in Nacre and in Hella's dreams. She wears it loose now, her natural curls a cloud around her pretty face. It suits her. She looks younger like this, softer. Adelaide has earned the right to a little softness, after everything._ _

__She ties off the last of Hella's braids and sits back. Hella whimpers at the loss of her, but then Adelaide pulls the blindfold away and she's blinking in the soft light of the oil lanterns, squinting as her eyes adjust._ _

__Her gaze falls on the silvered mirror opposite the bed and her mouth opens in a little 'o' of surprise. The pearls are luminous against the dark rust-red of her hair, lovely and strange. She doesn't look like herself, she looks like--_ _

__"You're mine," says Adelaide, and Hella nods, breathless._ _

__"Yours," she echoes, and she shivers as she says it. She's kneeling between the other woman's legs, her back to the bed, her head bowed. She is subdued and subservient, and she likes to see herself like this. All her life, Hella has been a sword in someone else's hand -- first her fathers', and then the Impetus' -- but Adelaide has found another use for her._ _

__Hella thinks that maybe _she_ has earned a little softness, as well._ _

__"Adelaide," she breaths, and the other woman silences her with a cool finger on her cheek. Hella closes her eyes and breathes out, steadying herself under Adelaide's hands._ _

__"Can you do something for me?" she says, her voice soft._ _

__Hella nods automatically._ _

__Adelaide's lips curve up in a smile. "Hold me down," she says, "let me feel your hands on my throat."_ _

__Hella's breath stops in her chest. "Adelaide," she says, a raw edge in her voice, but the other woman shakes her head._ _

__"Please," she says, soft and low and desperate. "I need to surrender something, tonight. I can't always be in control, Hella, I'm -- I'm falling apart." Her hands tighten against Hella's jaw, and there is a desperate vulnerability in her eyes. She has never looked so lost, so fragile._ _

__Hella swallows. "Alright," she says softly. "Alright."_ _

__Adelaide's relief is immediate. "Thank you," she says, and the tension drains from her shoulders. She extends a hand to Hella and pulls her up, onto the bed. She settles back onto the mattress and pulls Hella down on top of her, guiding her hands to her hips and breasts. Hella bends her head to kiss the other woman, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. Adelaide gasps and arcs up into Hella’s touch, soft and responsive, her mouth open in a moan._ _

__Hella reaches down and draws Adelaide’s skirt up her thighs, laying her bare. She is already wet and aroused, and she gasps when Hella takes her in hand, hips canting up against Hella’s seeking fingers. She reaches out blindly, catches Hella by the wrist, and places her hand on her throat. A nod of encouragement and a fleeting little half-smile and Hella gathers her courage and presses down, gently._ _

__Not enough to cut off the other woman’s air supply, just enough to let her feel it. Adelaide gasps and shudders under Hella’s hands, her eyes wide and staring. Grinning up at Hella, she inclines her head and presses a kiss to the inside of Hella’s wrist, teeth scraping across her fluttering pulsepoint._ _

__Hella presses down again, harder.This time, Adelaide has no words: she gasps and shivers, pushing up into Hella’s calloused grip. Her arousal slides slick down Hella’s wrist as she jerks the other woman off, slow and messy and rough, one hand braced on her throat. Adelaide can’t always come -- she has a complicated relationship with her own body, given the medicines she takes to maintain it -- but she’s close now, her movements shuddering and erratic as Hella applies gentle, steady pressure to her windpipe._ _

__Suddenly, it’s too much for both of them. Hella draws back just as Adelaide comes, spilling over her hand. There’s tears in her eyes, and Hella bends her head to kiss them away, settling down beside Adelaide and drawing her into an embrace. “I’m here,” she murmurs, lips brushing the other woman’s temple. “It’s alright, I’m here.”_ _

__Adelaide buries her face in Hella’s neck and says nothing, hands twisting in her hair. She pulls Hella down and captures her in a kiss, a slow, languid meeting of lips and tongues. Her breath is evening out, returning to baseline as Hella runs her hands over the other woman’s neck and shoulders and whispers soothing words against her lips._ _

__When Adelaide has calmed enough to speak, she murmurs “thank you,” and pulls back slightly to study Hella’s face. “You’re good to me,” she says, stroking Hella’s cheek. “Always so good to me.” She tips her face up and Hella kisses her again._ _

__“You make it easy,” she says, and Adelaide laughs softly._ _

__“Liar,” she says, and there’s no heat in it. “I’m very cruel.”_ _

__“I deserve it,” Hella murmurs, and she leans in for another kiss._ _

__Adelaide holds her at arm's length, her expression suddenly stern. “No,” she says, brow furrowed._ _

__“No?”_ _

__“ _No_ ,” says Adelaide, more firmly. “Everyone deserves kindness, Hella Varal. Even you.”_ _

__Hella demures, hiding her face in the crook of Adelaide’s shoulder and pressing a kiss to the junction of her neck and shoulder. There are bruises -- faint but still visible -- on her throat, ghostly imprints of Hella’s hands. Shivering, Hella traces the marks with her fingertips._ _

__Sighing, Adelaide catches Hella’s hand and intertwines their fingers. She strokes her thumb across Hella’s knuckles in a mindless soothing gesture. Her touch is tender, unbearably so, and Hella presses closer to the other woman, her head pillowed on Adelaide’s chest. They remain like that for a while, tangled up in one another’s limbs, sharing breath._ _


End file.
